The present invention relates to equipment utilized in military or para-military training, and more particularly, to simulated grenades used by soldiers in battlefield training exercises.
For many years the armed services of the United States of America have trained soldiers with a multiple integrated laser engagement system (MILES). A laser small arms transmitter (SAT) is affixed to each rifle carried by the infantry. The soldier pulls the trigger of his or her rifle to energize a laser in the SAT whose beam is aligned with the boresight of the rifle. At the same time a blank cartridge is ignited to simulate the firing of an actual round. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,385 of Parikh et al. entitled LASER SMALL ARMS TRANSMITTER granted Dec. 19, 1995 and assigned to Cubic Defense Systems, Inc. Each soldier wears a helmet and a vest or harness with optical sensors that are connected to circuitry for detecting and registering a laser hit. The soldier is immediately given a visual and/or audible signal to notify of the soldier of his or her casualty status. Player identification codes (PIDs) can be encoded on each laser beam so that the identity of the soldier making the "kill" and the weapon type can be ascertained. This is valuable in subsequent debriefing to explain to the soldiers the success or failure of various tactics and maneuvers. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,426,295 of Parikh et al. entitled MULTIPLE INTEGRATED LASER ENGAGEMENT SYSTEM EMPLOYING FIBER OPTIC DETECTION SIGNAL TRANSMISSION granted Jun. 20, 1995 and assigned to Cubic Defense Systems, Inc. The MILES system can also be configured to simulate indirect fire such as artillery and mortars, as well as minefields.
One weapon that is still widely used by infantry is the hand grenade. In the past, hand grenades for training purposes have been developed that simulate the flash and bang of an actual hand grenade, but lack the high explosive and fragmentation casing that would cause serious injury. Training grenades have also been developed that discharge smoke. Other training grenades have been developed that have a safe frangible outer shell that encloses a minimal explosive charge and a quantity of paint or dye which marks an enemy to indicate a casualty.
A non-explosive training grenade is commercially available for use in a MILES training exercise. This prior art MILES training grenade is handled and thrown in the same manner as an operational grenade. Once the pin is pulled and the training grenade is thrown, a battery powered electronic circuit activates an audible signal after a predetermined delay to indicate an explosion. At the same time the grenade emits infrared light from a plurality of light emitting diodes (LEDs) that emit radiation in a frequency range that is detectable by the optical sensors worn by soldiers within a predetermined simulated explosion radius, thus designating these soldiers as casualties in the training exercise. A PID may be encoded in this prior art MILES training grenade so that soldiers "killed" with such a grenade can determine who attacked them. The grenade is turned ON using a sender located on the soldier's optical detector harness. Ten minutes after its simulated detonation, this MILES training grenade emits a search code every minute to allow location, retrieval and reuse of the training grenade. This prior art MILES training grenade does not simulate the flash and bang of a real grenade, which greatly detracts from its realism and effectiveness in a simulated combat scenario. In addition, this prior art MILES training grenade cannot simulate an injury to a player, instead of a kill. Soldiers are sometimes injured, but not killed, by real grenades thrown in an actual battle.